Speech by Ludovine de La Rochère, LMPT President

Thank you to this great crowd! Speech by Ludovine de La Rochère on the podium at the Invalides.

SPEECH BY LUDOVINE DE LA ROCHÈRE,

PRESIDENT OF THE LA MANIF POUR TOUS COLLECTIVE

- MAY 26, 2013 DEMONSTRATION -

Dear all,

You, this great crowd, came here: thank you!

Thank you to all La Manif Pour Tous volunteers, in Paris, in our regions; thank you to our spokesmen, and to Frigide Barjot, the first among them. You made our Manif Pour Tous possible.

Thank you to the intellectuals, jurists, union leaders, scientists, health professionals, political leaders who have sided with us. They had the courage to defy the dominant ideology.

Thank you to you, Frenchmen who came from the mainland, from overseas, or from abroad.

You had the energy to stand up yesterday and today. And you will continue tomorrow!

We are several million to have peacefully marched during these long winter months against Taubira's law, against MAP for all, against surrogacy, against homophobia. We have not broken a single window, a single store front, burned a single car. Nothing!

We are neither a political movement, nor a religious movement, nor a coalition of disgraceful homophobes.

Our adversaries have attempted by every mean to spread these lies. But they have failed, because it is self-evident that our cause is open to all those who are primarily concerned about children's rights and well-being, that we are only concerned about the interests, protection, and happiness of the family.

We are here, always as numerous, because our fundamental and universal values unite us. '

The truth as that we did not see equality as our opponents do. Our conception, held by the majority in this country, is that the most important equality is that of children, the right to a father and a mother, that is, a real origin, real parentage, and not fakes. Around this idea we can gather atheists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, right-wingers, left-wingers, heterosexuals, homosexuals. For us, the truth owed to children is sacred. We do not want lies to be the frame of children's lives in this country, we do not want the triumph of gender ideology.

Because our opponents do not understand this, they refuse debate, they despise us, they slander us.

But this time, we are in the trend of our time, for want of the trend of History. Because we do not search for a pseudo-trend in History, we write it!

Every generation is present here, and, among them , fathers, mothers, youth, each one watching over us, watching over France, silently, peacefully.

Yes, we are turned towards the future; yes, we trust in the future; yes, we are building the future, and that is why we are demonstrating. We want a better world, not a brave new world.

What have we discovered along the way? We are not alone! No more are we alone, isolated, seen as old-fashioned, backward-looking, or conservative - as opposed to others, supposedly enlightened, though they live in unreality.

Yes, France has awakened!

We have succeeded in creating a historic mobilization. La Manif Pour Tous is the largest social movement that France has known since May 68. Let us be aware of what we have accomplished: we are a social force, powerful, determined, well organized. This success is primarily due to three things: our selflessness (we are thinking of future generations), our view to protect the weakest, our respect for every person.

Tomorrow will never be the same.

*

Though we have massively risen, asking simply to be listened to, to think about this law, not only social, but civilizational, according to Madame Taubira's own terms, what have the President's, the Government's, and Parliament's responses been?

Condescension, arrogance, and disdain.

They say they are men and women of dialogue, that they listen - only words. We were received but for a few minutes by the President and Erwan Binet, the law's rapporteur at the National Assembly; we were never received by the Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, never by the Minister of Justice, Christiane Taubira, or the Minister of Families, Dominique Bertinotti, never by Jean-Pierre Michel, the law's rapporteur in the Senate, who insulted us, calling us homophobes.

To this refusal of dialogue, the government and their supporters have added random violence. Demonstrations have been forbidden; innocent children, mothers, peaceful elderly persons were sprayed with tear gas on March 24; leafleting was prohibited, wearers of La Manif Pour Tous sweatshirts were arrested; a mother was assaulted by police under the very eyes of the Prefect who said nothing, bringing shame upon the entire prefectoral body; peaceful vigil keepers were arrested, and taken in custody; hikers who left from Rennes to join us today were harassed, controlled every day by police...What a scandal!

Their crimes? Dressing, peacefully demonstrating, keeping vigil in the evening by listening to great texts or the doctrine of non-violence. Is this democracy, Monsieur Ayrault? Monsieur Valls? Madame Taubira?

We have demonstrated in the respect of the laws of the Republic; they have reacted like the apparatchiks of a totalitarian state, and I weigh my words.

Are we still living in a true democracy?

After arbitrarily changing the definition of the word "marriage", the powers that be have unceasingly lied about the true participation in our demonstrations; they ordered the Economic, Social, and Environmental Council to throw out 700 000 petitions collected in the space of three weeks, an unprecedented feat on the history of the Fifth Republic. Though our constitution forbids it, representatives and senators voted the law according to the line imposed by the government, a characteristic of dictatorial regimes. Only some heroes, such as Bruno Nestor Azérot, resisted the pressure. In the Senate, the process was tinkered with, and we saw not a vote, but a theft, by show of hands. A denial of democracy, in which a part of the opposition is complicit through their passiveness.

To you, our elected representatives, where was your freedom of conscience when you voted for this law meant to transform our civilization, where was your courage when you abstained from voting? Where was your honor?

Our adversaries act thus because they are afraid, because the law they voted for is an iniquitous law written under the pressure of the LGBT lobby - Pierre Bergé, a tiny minority in the homosexual community, and they know it.

They act like they do because they represent an ancient era, a time long gone, that of deadly ideologies, that when Man thought he could do anything, forgetting the kind of humanity they would leave their children.

But we want this no longer!

They peremptorily tell us that this is a social law, a progressive law. How can we believe them? What progress are they speaking of? Theirs, probably: the progress that is the merchandising of the human body, the progress that is wombs for sale, the progress of lies - yes, you do not know it, but now you can have two fathers or two mothers, because what nature does not permit, they allow it for themselves, because they are Prometheus.

Not so long ago, we would have laughed at this; today, we cry, we are outraged!

On the slide of transgression, nothing can stop them, them, the false prophets of progress and modernity.

As soon as they speak of nature and ecology, they hold up the precautionary principle.

But when it comes to man, nature disappears, and so does precaution.

They cannot stop speaking of man/woman parity: there must be parity in boards of directors, in government, in the National Assembly; but parity in marriage, in the raising of a child, what a strange idea!

We tell them: stop! Listen to the people, debate, think. But they do not want to.

You, the President of the Republic, the guarantor of French unity, stop being blind and deaf, stop dividing the French, stop making the country's anger rise.

*

The situation is critical.

Faced with the lies and iniquity that this law consecrates, the hour of resistance is upon us. This is about the future of mankind, about man and woman, about our children and their freedom.

We too are outraged! That is why we have made the appeal of 18 May, 2013.

Our task is immense but essential. We are many, in France and abroad. The entire world is watching us, because once again, the French have dared to stand up against the tyranny of a minority and its vassals.

Today, I am announcing, to all those who still believe that we will give up, that we will continue the fight everywhere in France!

Unless the President responds quickly and appropriately to today's gathering, be prepared for new actions in the coming days and weeks.

Beyond that, La Manif Pour Tous is here for the long haul in France and Europe. We will actively participate in civic affairs with our convictions and values.

La Manif Pour Tous has three missions in order to protect what we see as the keystone of our society: families, yes, families.

Our first mission: abolish Taubira's law, if not tomorrow, then the day after.

And we will fight its immediate consequences: MAP (medically assisted procreation) for all and surrogacy.

Our second mission: support those men and women of courage and good will who will defend our values: mayors, elected representatives, union representatives, political leaders, lobbyists, all of those who will speak out in opposition to marriage for all in public debates.

Our third mission: fight so that the reality of what a human being is, man or woman, is recognized, to defend the weakest among us.

We will continue, relentlessly, to defend man-woman marriage, father-mother-child parentage, and families, basic cells of society, the first place of solidarity, the source of all human and social wealth

We will fight against gender ideology, the base for the "marriage for all" law. We will intervene against its spread, in particular in schools; we will conduct inquiries, publish studies, be activists.

Because La Manif Pour Tous is now inescapable, it will continue to spread, to organize, to be even more important in public debates. To that end, membership will be available for sympathizers starting in June.

*

Today, the law has been promulgated. Has the last word been said? Must hope disappear? Is defeat definitive? No!

Our opposition movement, this immense groundswell, will not stop, simply because it is born of the deep, innate refusal of a law based on a lie, a law that concerns every Frenchman.

We refuse to have French politics turn from what is essential: the urgent preoccupations of citizens who, today, face a drastic social and economic situation.

Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not die, and it will not die: it is called to strengthen and spread. It must continue to build this wall which alone can stop the wave of projects hurting the common good, the future of society, French values, the respect of Man, and true democracy.

Follow us on Twitter

The "Manif Pour Tous" is a spontaneous and peaceful grassroots movement, which, beyond any religious, partisan or gender concerns, works to preserve the unity of the equal, man-woman parentage guaranteed by French law in civil marriage.

The "Manif Pour Tous" (Demonstration for All) condemns all violence and any sort of homophobia or intolerance, whichever its form.

It condemns any people or organisation who would misuse its name, logo or the image of its leaders or spokesmen.

JavaScript is currently disabled.Please enable it for a better experience of Jumi.